Kin's Discord
by l My Dark Angel l
Summary: Amid celebration and recovering of the war after Ozai's defeat, a family has crumbled absolutely, with two of them in wretched cells. Desperate to bring her old life back into reality, Ursa comes back against her banishment in hopes to convince them to reach inside their hearts for forgiveness and return home in peace. But will it be worth it in the end?
1. Part One

**I felt like a fanfiction was overdue on my part, so I came up with this. **

**This is two chapters only because when it finally came out, I thought it was too long to keep as just one chapter. I guess I had a lot to go on between the family. Azula's not the only one suffering, after all. So it's cut in a rather obvious way. R&R guys; it's what makes my day! **

**Kin's Discord**

**Part One**

She was walking out of town when she really began to notice how the people took the defeat of the Fire Nation and its lord. Many took advantage of it all by playing outside or going in the markets, just like in the old days before the world was horribly scarred by that war. Others were trying to clean off the debris and charred remains of the war's final battle's destruction. Some completely rebellious and reckless citizens were still rampant in the street whooping in cheerful exultation like maniacs. These were happy people in a happy city in a happy nation.

Clearly, she was in the wrong place. If anything, she never felt so different, so antonymous to these people of the Earth Kingdom. She was not celebrating at all, a dark, depressing feeling in her chest as she thought about how if they were happy hear, those back home must be suffering somehow.

She had her hood sprawled over her head to shield her face from anyone. Not like anyone would actually recognize her though; she was only well known in the Fire Nation, not here in Ba Sing Se. Here, she was a citizen just like her neighbors and the bystanders she crossed paths with. Here, she could have forgotten about the stress and the pain that crushed her shoulders back home.

But it wasn't exactly like that. Here, she was not Princess Ursa of the Fire Nation or anything like that, and a long while ago, she had easily accepted that. She had fallen, exhausted and weak, into the arms of defeat against the world that had suddenly shifted against her after all that happened back at the Fire Nation. A world that she promised herself and her family was perfect was brought into realization of its true imperfection in a truly hard way.

She handed the person at the desk her ticket to head into the trains to head out of Ba Sing Se. It would take several hours to get there, but during that time, she could really think about all that's happen, and what could happen when she returned home.

Ursa decided Zuko could wait to see her. She would have all the time remaining in her life to see her brilliant, noble son at his best for helping saving the world. She felt that this would be her only chance to see her fallen family.

Now was not the time to sit back and accept all that has happened, even if she was sitting down in the train. She cannot let the world celebrate while people remain suffering somewhere-specifically the Fire Nation. What was going on there? How many people there had accepted the new changes? Were there those who wanted a revolution, their old Fire Lord, whose decisions and opinions they favored over Zuko's? Those who did, how were they about this? There was so much going on in her mind that finally, she simply had to let I go and drifted off to sleep while on the train. It wasn't even nighttime, but the confliction going on in her, and partly due to the long walk to arrive to the train, had driven her to abrupt exhaustion.

* * *

The ride out of Ba Sing Se was long enough, and by the time she awakened, she still had a lot more to travel. A boat would take her to the Fire Nation, and she'd have to walk the rest of the way. Ursa almost missed the perks of royalty; having a ride every way you want, not becoming exhausted after meandering miles for hours.

But hours went by and the twilight arose from the large mountains when Ursa tired feet led her into the red and gold city she used to call home. Her hood remained over her head and she wanted it that way. If people found her wandering about, she'd lose her privacy, and never get the chance to see Ozai and Azula without fusses erupting through the nation.

So she was lucky that by the time she arrived there, it was late enough that not many people were occupying the streets. She hurried out of town and followed a rocky edged path toward the prison. She really hadn't been there before but had seen it from their palace once. She never wanted to be there; not like she had a choice.

Ursa entered the entrance of the prison with quiet footsteps. It was weird, but she still felt like she shouldn't be here in the Fire Nation. But after the war was over, she had a feeling she could return with much more ease without Ozai in control.

At first, she worried if either him or her daughter were…the words couldn't even come to her mind. But she had hoped that one of them would be here, if anything bad did happen. She would learn here, at least.

"Excuse me, no visiting hours right now," said the bearded guard, but with his head down, Ursa was surprised he saw her. He didn't give her so much as a glance; only a lazy, dismissing wave toward the door.

All Ursa had to do was pull her head up with a solemn, stoic look on her face. She could not smile; not when she was visiting part of her family here. It was too much of a sickly, dark place to muster a fake grin of…whatever she would possibly be smiling for.

"I don't mean to cause problems, I'm just here to visit," she said in but a whisper.

The guard finally forced himself out of his seat, with great struggle apparently, based on the roll of his eyes and a groan he was sure to let out in the few moments afterwards. And when he came over to warn Ursa, her face was revealed to him. It took a moment for the recognition to hit, but when it did, his eyes grew in shock, and immediately he bowed his upper body down as a sign that he knew who she saw. "I'm sorry…Princess Ursa?" he struggled to register who she was; after all, she was here partly to see her husband, the exiled Fire Lord." She nodded kindly and was asked by the guard, "Who are you seeing now?"

She really hadn't cared who to see first, and didn't see it as something to take seriously. She'd see either of them that day no matter what. But Ursa replied anyway, choosing the first name to appear in her mind, "Ozai is here, correct?"

Her heart skipped a beat when he nodded. Whether it was because she was happy he was alive or her anxiety of seeing him again, she had no clue.

The guard nodded and started his way into a mucky, stone hallway where many metal doors encased prisoners, most likely asleep at the late hour she had arrived at. No windows, and the air had an irritable feel to it. Her nose scrunched; oh, she'd hate to be here.

They came to a door, which the guard opened for her with another bow as he gestured her inside. It would take time for her to get used to it; she smiled and went inside. Alone as the door shut, she easily found who she was looking for here when the sound woke him up and made his golden eyes flutter open and give a curious glare toward the door.

For a while, they just stared at one another. The silence that lingered was far worse than her fear of talking with him. It spoke a million harsh, truthful words. His glare was enough to spread a thousand words into her ears. Some Ursa was sure involved his hate that she was free and he wasn't.

Finally, words cut into the painstaking silence. "I had a feeling you'd return here," Ozai whispered, and Ursa walked across the distance, the only barrier between them the bars of the man's cell. She kneeled down and observed his face. Never had she seen such a look of defeat, lifelessness, and most of all, shame. Always was he so overconfident, strong, and cunning; gone, it was, gone…

"Really?" Ursa asked, actually curious about his assumptions.

"Perhaps if you had my courage, you would be able to face me before I was caged and can barely move. But you take the more cowardly way and meet me at my weakest, to make sure I do no harm. I see that's where Zuko gets his lack of it."

"When you banished me, I swore to myself someday I'd come back. For Zuko. And Azula, if I had the chance," she explained with confidence. She planned what she had to say, over and over on the boat ride. She wanted to make Ozai's words a lie; inside, she was strong. She just was afraid of the hot-tempered firebender that was her dangerous husband-ex-husband.

"So if I weren't so humiliatingly defeated like this, would you come and face me, if I were able to move around and firebend freely?" Ozai challenged, still stoic but with a sort of evil smirk about him.

Ursa really had no answer for that. She sighed. "That's not why I'm here."

"Then why are you here?" he asked.

She had so much to say, to scorn him for his malevolent actions and give her opinion on his evil choices, but she saw how conquered and lost he looked, and she really couldn't say any of that just yet. "What did the Avatar do to you?" she instead asked.

What she would hear in Ba Sing Se was vague; lots of people knew the Avatar would face the man whose ancestors caused this accursed war. What happened, however, according to those gossipy townspeople varied from killing him to making him a sort of brainwashed servant. She knelt down and saw deeply into his face. So aged, so sunken…what had happened?

"Even I don't know as much, and yet what he had done must've worked. There was blinding light when he put his hands on my head and chest, and it was all black for a while. After that, I was absolutely immobilized. My own soldiers," he added with greater malice, "had to carry me to this place. It's the most disgraceful thing ever to happen to me."

"It wouldn't have to be if-" Oh, the words were there, and she had her words organized and everything.

Ozai scoffed, interrupting her train of thoughts. "If my own son hadn't dared to disobey me and betray this nation. Without him, I doubt the Avatar would be able to know the information only he knew. And he'd have no chance against me."

"Your son had more than enough rights to leave you. After…" Her voice trailed off as the thoughts invaded her mind. No, she never saw her son after she left, but the tremble-causing images in her head felt very real.

"After I send him out after the Avatar," Ozai sneered. "And gave him that scar to prove he needed the boy for my condolences." His casual tone gave Ursa a chill, how he said he pained his son like it was a simple thing.

She glared down at the ground. She had heard it all over Ba Sing Se, and in her mind, it seemed like only a few months ago when she heard her son was burned and brutally scarred by his own father, at just thirteen.

That day, that minute, that second, she wanted to abandon this peaceful kingdom and race home to comfort her son. But what good would it do? Ozai would send her back…or even worse. And Zuko would be destroyed even more; seeing his mother only to never see her again. And what could she say to her son, the one with a scar on his left eye? She never had heard of any way to get through that and couldn't face something she didn't know about.

"How could you scar your own son like that? I always tried to see the good in you, but after that…I just couldn't." Ursa felt the tears burn her eyes and she brushed them away with her wide sleeve. If Ozai noticed, he didn't say anything.

"He disrespected me, talking out of terms like that. He was not even supposed to be there, but my brother allowed him in. I knew he wasn't ready, and he was too childish to know what it's like at those meetings. So he suffered for his reckless actions," Ozai responded.

"He was your son. You raised him," Ursa fought back. How could he stare into the pleading eyes of his own child and release flames against his face? What kind of man was he?

She didn't let him respond, too disgusted to allow him to. "Did you want this to happen?" she asked in the strictest voice she could allow herself. She gestured furiously at her husband, specifically at the chains that encased him to the wall behind him. Not as free as she.

"I wanted what many didn't want me to have. But they didn't know my reasons; to carry on the actions of my father, and my grandfather. I was someone with a goal, and the fact that fools decide to bring me down shows how this world is useless is to me."

"That's really how you feel, isn't it?" What could she do, convincing a man like him to change, and for what? He'd never see things how she saw them. Ozai made no response. She sighed. "I'm sorry…I'm sorry I wasted your time," she said disappointedly.

"Zuko came a while ago, and he mentioned you."

Ursa was already at the door, the handle in her grasp. But at that sentence, her grip tightened, and she forced herself to let go. She turned around. "What did you tell him?"

"All I told him was that she suffered enough to wish she was dead but not quite," Ozai answered, and he gave the slightest smirk away at the horror in her voice. Tears slipped from her eyes and she realized she couldn't be here anymore.

She slammed the door behind her, and was about to crumble in tears, but she couldn't allow herself when she saw the same guard from before come into the hallway. He gave her a wide eyed look that seemed sympathetic.

Ursa couldn't allow herself to say anything against Ozai, what he said to her. She then replied, "Take me to see Azula, please."

**I'll bring in the final part at least by Thursday, tops. I won't keep you guys waiting too long.**


	2. Part Two

**Thanks for the feedback, everyone! I'd like some more, but really, I'm not going to argue. Here'spart two.**

**Random A/N: I have a lot in my mind when it comes to Azula and the messed up shit in her head. So this has nothing to do with "A Second Chance." In fact, this is rather different; as in, Azula never goes into an asylum, or the likes, and remains imprisoned. There are always two ways Azula could go: change for the sake of being able to redeem herself, and being too stubborn to realize her mistakes and facing her consequences in prison. How this goes, well, just see.**

**Kin's Discord**

**Part Two**

The guard led Ursa into another hallway; as far as the father and daughter could be separated. He allowed her into the room and again waited outside, the door closed. How could these guards just stand out there and let visitor's visit like nothing could happen in there? It almost scared her, the things Azula could do in a rage.

When she entered, however, Azula was probably asleep; she scarcely stirred when Ursa came in. And for a moment, she actually looked peaceful, the imprisoner girl of just fourteen.

But then Ursa came forward and saw more of her daughter. She was restrained in tight, shiny new chains at her wrists and ankles, and she was slumped in the corner. Her hair was no longer in its common bun but in a bird's nest all over her face and shoulders. Just a few moments in here and Ursa realized how much this had broken and destroyed her very daughter. Much like her father, this war and the defeat severely affected her physical state; and what about her mental state, which she knew was as unstable as when she left all those years ago?

Could she have stopped this from happening? She stepped inside, and her footsteps were the loudest noise in the room minus a chitter of rats that crossed the room. Even with that, it was loud enough noise to catch Azula's attention. She saw her daughter's gold irises, paled and cold, go up and meet hers. Her face was completely pale and gaunt, with deep purple under her shadowy eyes.

"I almost thought you were gone for good," said Azula with spite.

"Well, I'm sorry to hear that," replied Ursa simply; whatever Azula has to say about Ursa, she would ignore and accept for now. Let her say what she wants and let it all out. And eventually, patience would reward her with her own chance to speak.

"I'm sure you're proud of your favorite child-of your favorite little Zuzu," Azula scoffed. "And then there's me."

Ursa had, at first, no way to soothe her child. She knew of a soft, weak little girl in this crumbled teenager, but how could she find this girl when she had no way to strip away the mask of anger and complete antisocialism that was the girl in chains? When Zuko was a child, he was so kind and willing to let his mother hold him, but Azula was…Azula.

"Azula…" she said finally, though what would come next was tossed into the air. Azula snapped at her immediately.

"Save the lectures," she said through barred teeth. "I won't bother with them. You're wasting your time here, trying to talk to me."

"I want to lecture you because I want to help you. You and your father," Ursa informed her brusquely. She didn't like the bad turn this conversation already has been taken. How she failed to even talk to her husband should have been a clue how hard it would be to talk to Azula. But she had to try.

"Oh, sure, now you want to. Now you decide to chat with me about all my mistakes. When we've apparently the biggest in our lives, while we're cramped in these cells. I can see it in your eyes; I've always been a people person, and don't deny it. Well, you missed a time when I would have possibly actually listened," said Azula with a smirk Ursa could not read. "Now I couldn't care less. You missed your chance because you were afraid to face me. Too weak."

"Don't talk to your mother like that." Even she realized how silly she was sounding, acting like this now. There was that nostalgic feeling but it was gone because she knew it would hurt her child.

Azula chuckled darkly. "You are not any mother of mine. You never were. Never cared for me. You thought I was a monster."

"I never did," Ursa argued, but seeing this girl, crazed and caged in this prison, made a tiny voice in the back of her head speak otherwise. "I love you."

Azula's lips curled back, fury destroying the beauty of her face. And Ursa wasn't quite sure, but there was a gleam in Azula's eyes. That liquid fell down her cheeks. Tears? But she didn't make any sobbing sobs, and in fact, her tears added to the anger Ursa felt coming from Azula. "Get iout!/i" yelled Azula. "I never want to speak to you again. You were a waste of my life like I was of yours! You didn't even bother trying to help me, thinking it was worthless effort. Only came here to lecture me, when I really should tell you the mistakes you made. But there's really not enough time for that."

Fire escaped from Azula's encased hands, but the restraints made it impossible to aim anywhere but in the air just above her. And her usually lovely blue flames were a weak orange, her inspiration and passion for firebending gone once she was cooped up in this cell. The flames licked her wrists, and she growled in pain.

Ursa's eyes widened; it was all she could do. There were no words for her thoughts, which fumbled and tossed and turned, while her knees transformed into jelly. "Are you alright?" she asked.

Azula was hesitant to reply; she had tried to shut herself from the woman in front of her. Her back was facing her and she stared into space at the wall. Her eyes shut. "I barely feel it anymore. It's only the fact I can't firebend as perfectly as I could anymore that I hate," Azula grumbled, hating herself for losing her best power. Useless, pathetic, she must have felt like this and so many other things. And what could Ursa do about it?

"I wish I was able to save you from letting this all happen to you," said the mother with her tears now snapping away the calmed, sweet phase she tried to pull off.

"It's too late for wishes, mother," Azula said in a bitter tone full of malicious sarcasm. "If you had the guts to see me before I ended up here, maybe you could have gotten what you wanted. In the end, everyone is happy…except me and father. Your words are nothing here. Nothing to me."

"We could have been like old times, where no one was trying to kill one another."

"If everyone simply agreed with our motivations, we wouldn't have to kill all those people. They could have joined us," said Azula.

"You would have anyway," Ursa fired back, though shocked at herself for throwing herself in an argument with her own daughter. "Your father tried to follow the path of his father and his grandfather, and he suffered for such horrid actions."

"Actions that would have had great rewards, mother," Azula said. "If only people realized those rewards; then they wouldn't judge us. They would love us like the whole nation did…and unlike you." The sudden flash in the amber eyes suddenly hit Ursa.

Ursa had no way to respond. Her heart sank at a horrid realization; there was no way to talk Azula out of her crazy theories that her father gave her. Like her father, she was stuck with a theory that they were still right, even if they were forced into prison like they were. And what could she do? Absolutely nothing but watch them dive down into insanity.

"I…" Ursa was only able to say, losing her voice just by saying that. They stood in painful silence where Azula's colorless, glaring face, much like her fathers, was obviously all that the girl had to say. Ursa could not possibly see through Azula's eyes, see herself and her reactions.

"Sorry, ma'am," interrupted someone behind her, and she turned to see a different guard standing at the doorway. She didn't even hear him come in. "But we cannot let you stay here longer. You can return to the palace now…if that is fine with you."

"Yes, that would be nice," she whispered.

"Say hi to your precious Zuko for me," Azula snarled in a dark voice when the guard's back was turned. She turned away, her back now facing the woman. Ursa tried to think of what else to say, but again, nothing could come. She was speechless.

But finally, something came just as the guard escorted her out of the room. "Like I said to your father, we both have made mistakes, and I want to put them behind me just like you. I'm sorry, Azula," she said, mustering every ounce of bravery in her to not become tearful. The door closed behind them and she was taken out of the prison.

She escaped the prison with a glance over her shoulder. How could she leave most of her family in there to rot? Even after all those horrible past events that destroyed their family, she felt that she could have done something-anything-to maybe have them realize someone loves them, even a little.

But she was too late, she had hidden for too long, and most of all, they weren't ready to heal or realize their mistakes. All of their errors led to this, and Ursa left the prison grounds at last, the tears of remembrance of better times overwhelming her. She couldn't take another look at the prison that held her crumbled family, and headed toward the palace.

**I would have thought there was more to say between these two, but it was all I really come up with. I'M NOT A THERAPIST! XD Like I said, read and review. Thanks for checking this out, even the silent readers. I'd love some more reviews, but, hey, at least you gave this a look. **


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